The Last Stand
by dijin
Summary: The story of Luxa's parents making a final stand against the army of King Gorger, my first Fanfic oneshot


This is my first fanfic so try to forgive any mistakes I've made.

The idea came to me last night and just grew from there with very little input from me, it seems to have a mind of it's own. I haven't the best eye for judging fanfics so please review. It could be a masterpiece or a pile of….. well you get the picture. Once again please tell me what you think.

Queen Judith of Regalia stood in the gateway of the human settlement of Tarsus, at the front of the force of almost a hundred armour clad human warriors on foot. Almost half again as many, led by her husband Stephan, flew overhead with their bonds. Her own bond, Hemera, stood uneasily by her side, her brown fur seeming almost black, stood as she was just on the edge of the scant light provided by the torch.

Tarsus was empty save the gate guards, the city of five hundred was dark and silent, all it's citizens shuttled by flier to Regalia, the Fount or Troy. Now only this small force remained, and it too would have been gone had the gnawers not collapsed the larger caves they could have used to escape. The smaller were guarded, they could only enter single file, it would be a slaughter if they tried to escape. The only hope left was that her mother Solovet would bring the full might of the Regalian army to bear and arrive in time to save them. That hope was diminishing rapidly.

The scratch of claws broke her from her thoughts and Judith turned to the warriors at the gate.

"It is time".

As one they drew their blades, the rasp of metal on leather sounding like a chorus of hissers. A dozen stood behind the main group, bows readied.

Then they arrived.

One thousand gnawers flooded through the entrance tunnel. Immediately the bowmen fired, seven of their foe dropped. She heard a horn sound behind her, a low mournful note. She saw her husband wheel about in the air atop his bond, Vulcan, and with him the fifty others mounted on fliers.

"Charge!" she cried and around her a noise built up, a wordless roar of defiance as the sons and daughters of Regalia charged to fight their last.

She jumped atop her bond as the soldiers charged, gleaming blade out, her silver hair flying out behind her, around her crown.

Hemara brought her to the fore of the attack, beside her husband, and they flew into the front of their foe, lashing out at their foe. Her blade sliced through a gnawers neck, decapitating it whilst her husband stabbed another through the belly, Vulcan blinding a third with his claws. Around them the mounted warriors and their bonds dive into their old foes ranks, cleaving left and right.

Moments later the infantry reached their foe and immediately became bogged down in a melee. Whilst the aerial troops could flee the gnawers claws the infantry couldn't and a dozen died in the first moments.

At first it seemed to be going in their favour, the ferocity of the humans charge surprising their foe, but soon the weight of numbers began to tell and he humans were being pushed back to the gates, one by one they fell. Every soldier cut down tow gnawers but it wasn't enough. By the time they were at the gates thirty were left on foot.

After diving down again into the enemies horde the Queen of Regalia felt a sudden jerk beneath her and them felt the feeling reciprocated in her heart as she saw Hemara, her closest friend and confidant, go limp beneath her and crash down in front of the gates.

Everything seemed to slow at that moment. She heard a shriek and saw Vulcan, enraged by his mate's death, dive down with impossible speed, ignoring his rider. The flier crashed into the gnawers, biting and slashing and clawing. Stephan jumped off of him to try and defend his friends back but no sooner had he done this than had a huge black gnawer cleaved away the great grey bat with a swipe of his claw.

Fighting his rage Stephan ran back to help his wife, but he rat was fast, surging ahead of it's smaller brethren and smashing into the King's back, mouth open.

Judith saw her husband's head disappear inside the beast's great maw.

His headless corpse seemed to take an age to fall.

Her mind was no longer intact. Pain and grief clouded her thoughts but something teased at the edge of her mind.

She recognised the gnawer.

King Gorger stood up and slowly pawed his way through the feeble defence put up by the survivors. Judith's head lolled to the side, she saw the tattered remnants of her army fleeing, ragged and bloodied, into the city. The torches were going out.

She forced herself to look up again. Gorger was above her. He paused to pick up her crown, jamming it over one of his ears, before drawing back one clawed paw.

A tear leaked out of Judith's eye as her lat mortal though bobbed up through the sea of anguish in her heart, and she whispered too softly for any to hear through the din of battle.

"I'm sorry Luxa."

And after that she could see naught but black.


End file.
